Quest for Justice by Sean Fay Wolfe Page B

Pig-Zombie slashed, she feinted back and gave an almighty attack with her sword, as if she were brandishing a baseball bat. The undead beingflew backward and slammed into a tree. She threw the bow and arrows to Stan, and took the opportunity to catch her breath.
    Stan took the bow, positioned the arrow, took aim, and fired.
    He hit his target. The arrow sunk deep into the Creeper’s head.
    The Creeper looked at Stan. Its eyes glowed red, and the electric activity around its body increased significantly. Then the monster charged, full speed, toward them.
    â€œWhat do you think you’re doing?” yelled Kat, but she had to turn her eyes back to her own fight. The Pig-Zombie was back on its feet, and it gave her a cut across the back that sent her tumbling. Her sword flew high into the air.
    Stan knew that he couldn’t allow himself to think of his two fallen friends until he completed the task at hand. He caught Kat’s iron sword and rushed at the Pig-Zombie. The swords collided, and the two struggled to overpower each other. Stan stared into the beast’s face, noticing that one of its eyes was nothing more than an empty socket, and he saw out of the corner of his right eye that the Creeper was almost upon him. Stan feinted back and used all his remaining strength to thrust the sword into the Pig-Zombie’s stomach. Before the undead fiend had time to react, Stan flung the Pig-Zombie over his head, and it collided with the hissing Creeper.Stan dived out of the way just as he heard the tremendous explosion behind him.
    Stan was badly rattled from the blast, and he knew that he’d been injured during the fight, but he forced himself to get up and survey the scene around him. Charlie was lying on the side of the road, the cuts on his head and leg bleeding. Rex lay on the edge of the crater, still whimpering. Kat was nowhere to be found. In the place where the two monsters had collided there was a crater, three times bigger than a normal crater caused by a Creeper explosion. The Pig-Zombie was gone, and all that remained was a pile of rotten meat and a bloodstained gold sword.
    Wasting no time, Stan started to walk to the crater. Each step was excruciating, but he had to save his friends. He scooped up the golden sword and put both swords into his inventory. He held the rotten flesh in his hands. This he fed to Rex, whose tail instantly shot up, and he became the same dog again, licking Stan’s hand.
    Stan hobbled over to Charlie next. He wasn’t moving at all, and his wounds looked worse up close. Fearing the worst, Stan reached into Charlie’s inventory and pulled out a watermelon slice. He stuffed it into Charlie’s mouth, hoping for a sign of life. To his relief, Charlie slowly started to chew the watermelon and then gave a sigh. Stan sighed, too, now sure that Charlie would be all right if he could find the righttreatment quickly enough.
    That left Kat. Stan had no idea where she was. He couldn’t see her anywhere. He was just starting to panic when he heard a raspy, female voice calling his name from within the crater made by the pyramid explosion. He looked into it and saw Kat lying spread-eagle on a ledge about five blocks down. As Stan punched his way through the dirt to get down to help her, it became clear that Kat had had the wind knocked out of her. Her breathing was shallow and raspy.
    With great difficulty, Stan and Kat made their way out of the colossal crater and then, without a word, both fell to the ground, unconscious.
    Stan woke up to the feel of Rex licking his face. Judging by the fact that it was early morning and the sky was no longer gray, they had been out cold for a while. Stan sat up and woke Kat.
    â€œIt’s funny,” she said with a grimace. “Each day I think this game couldn’t get any more dangerous.”
    Stan nodded. He understood what she meant. “Well, let’s hurry. We have to get Charlie some help as soon as possible,